Hale church fined on trademark

U.S. judge sets penalty until it stops using name

April 25, 2003|By Shia Kapos, Tribune staff reporter.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the former World Church of the Creator, renamed the Creativity Movement, must pay $1,000 for each day it continues to use its old name, which an appellate court said violates the trademark of another church.

U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow ordered that the Creativity Movement Web site be shut down until it eliminates all protected terms. She also ordered the white-supremacist group to turn over its membership list.

The rulings will nearly wrap up a case that prompted the Jan. 8 arrest of Matthew Hale, 31, the Creativity Movement's leader, on charges he solicited Lefkow's murder.

Last year, Hale had labeled the judge "corrupt" for enforcing an appellate court's ruling that ordered him to destroy the printed materials about his church that violated trademark laws.

The trademark infringement suit was filed three years ago by the Church of the Creator, based in Oregon, against World Church of the Creator. The Oregon church, operated by TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation, said the similar names and trademarks left the mistaken impression that it endorses Hale's racist messages.

Lefkow had ruled in Hale's favor, dismissing the Oregon church's lawsuit, but in July a federal appeals court in Chicago ruled that Hale's group had violated the trademark.

On Thursday, TE-TA-MA attorneys said "Church of the Creator" continued to pop up on Internet search engines, an indication that the site had not been changed.

"It appears your client has not notified Yahoo," said the judge before ordering the $1,000-a-day fine for each day the Web page is not purged.

"Shut it down until it is demonstrated it does not contain offending material," she told Hale's attorney, Todd Reardon.

The lawyer later praised the ruling for clarifying that Hale's followers don't have to destroy their "bibles."

He was more concerned, however, about the judge's order to turn over the church's membership list.

"If I subscribe to Playboy, do I support Hugh Hefner? ... These people have a well-founded fear."